The Coalition of Progressive Electors has officially announced its nomination date. The left-leaning civic party confirmed the vote takes place Sept. 18 at the Coast Plaza Hotel.
COPE inked an electoral deal with Vision Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»that will see it run four candidates for school board, compared to Vision's five, in the race for nine trustee seats.
All three longtime COPE trustees--Al Blakey, Allan Wong and Jane Bouey--told me in March they planned to run for another nomination. Incumbents must run for a spot on the party's ticket.
Gwen Giesbrecht, chair of the District Parent Advisory Council, is also seeking a nomination. Giesbrecht, who's lived in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»for more than two decades, has a 13-year-old son entering high school at Britannia secondary this September. She owns a hair and esthetics salon on Commercial Drive and has been involved with the district parent group for five years.
If she wins a COPE nomination, and subsequently lands a trustee seat, she'll have to withdraw from DPAC.
"The DPAC constitution and bylaws say that once you're officially nominated, you have to take a leave of absence, then if you're elected, you have to withdraw altogether," she said.
COPE's candidate search committee approached Giesbrecht to run in the 2011 civic election. She said COPE is the only civic political party in which she's held a membership.
Trustees typically don't enjoy a high public profile, must attend a lot of meetings and earn relatively little money for their efforts--the board chair made $26,000 in the year ending June 30, 2010, while trustees collected $24,000--but Giesbrecht said she's not concerned.
"That description can be applied to DPAC as well," she laughed, adding, "I do feel I have some of the background that's required. I'm not informed on all the areas that the trustees operate in, but a fair number of the committees trustees sit on are also committees that the DPAC rep sits on. I feel that after five years of pretty active involvement with DPAC, I have a good grounding in most of the major issues that come through the district."
The school board faces more tough financial decisions during the 2011/12 year, but Giesbrecht said the goal is to help achieve the best result.
"There's always going to be decisions that have to be made that, in your heart, you know they're possibly not the best decisions. The important work is to try to help come to the conclusion that creates the best possible outcome," she said.
Registration for COPE's 2011 Nomination and Policy Conference starts at 8:30 a.m., Sept. 18, and the conference, which will shape COPE's 2011 election platform, runs from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. Draft policies and ideas will be discussed, along with new ones, and they will be voted on.
To vote, or to be eligible for a nomination, you must be a current member of COPE for 45 days prior to the vote, which means the deadline to join the party for that purpose is Aug. 4.
The nomination meeting begins at 1 p.m. and is expected to last three hours.
Alvin Singh, COPE's executive director, said candidates can be nominated from the floor.
"In the last campaign, I believe it was contested. We usually have a contested nomination for trustee. Education has always been a big deal in COPE. A lot of our members are education advocates, so you end up with a lot of people that are interested in the job."
Twitter: @Naoibh
